This is the wonderful goodness that I create almost daily. When I don’t have it now, I get sad. It is amazingly comforting, and it has wonderful anti inflammatory benefits to boot! So why bone broth? Well, I’ll tell you!

Bone broth is a nutrient bomb. It is made up of many things that our bodies need, but especially two of those things are proline and glycine. Glycine and proline are two main components of our connective tissue that holds our bodies together. Even though there are many types of connective tissue, these two amino acids are present in most of them. If we didn’t have these two amino acids holding us together, we would literally crumble! So you can imagine how critical these two power house are for our health! Glycine in particular helps our immune system tremendously and reduces active inflammation. From healing cuts and scrapes to healing our immune systems, getting this into our system is critical.

Glycine does many more things for us as well. It aids in digestion, helps with proper nervous system function, helps the detoxification process, regulates blood sugar and helps muscle growth and repair, among others. Crazy list right?? But don’t forget about proline! Proline helps reduce cholesterol in your blood and helps to break down proteins needed for muscle growth and repair.

Was that enough reason for you to be drinking bone broth daily? I hope so. Let’s get on to the broth, shall we?

First, some tips.

• Getting your bones from a reputable source will make a HUGE difference. Not only to your finished product, but also to the nutrient make up of your broth. The better the bones, the better the broth.
• Also, the best bones I’ve found for broth are the bones you don’t want to touch. Think chicken feet, chicken necks, marrow, etc. They will make your broth come out like jello (that’s a GREAT thing, by the way). The gelatinous consistency is the collagen from the bones. It will become totally liquid when it is heated.
• I usually find my bones at Whole Foods, or at my Local Farm Market. They are usually pretty cheap too. If you can’t find them in stores, just ask a local butcher to save some for you, they usually will!

To make the broth:

WHAT YOU NEED:

• Bones upon bones upon bones.
• But for reals, as many bones as you can get. (Some people mix bones, like chicken and beef bones, but I’ve never tried that)
• Lots of water
• 1-2 TBS of Apple Cider Vinegar (this helps to extract the nutrients from the bones as they cook)
  • This is all I add usually, since I like to add my own herbs to each mug, but,
• If you wish to add cut up veggies and herbs to flavor your broth, please do! You can’t really go wrong. Many people add carrots, celery, onion, salt, garlic, bay leaf etc.

HOW TO:

• Put the bones in your slow cooker (you can use your Instant Pot as well, but I haven’t tried that yet)
• Add water, enough to almost cover the bones.
• Add Apple Cider Vinegar
• Add veggies and herbs if using
• Put slow cooker on low, cook for 12-48 (yes, 48. no, it won’t go bad)

That’s all! Pretty simple really, it just takes forever to cook. The longest I have cooked mine is about 14 hours. It came out wonderful. I’m sure if you cook it 48 hours, it will come out awesome as well.

TO MAKE MY MUG OF ANTI INFLAMMATORY GOODNESS:

To each mug of bone broth I make, I add herbs and sea salt. Sometimes the herbs are more on the tasty side, sometimes they are on the spicy side. Lately, I’ve been on a turmeric/ginger combo kick. The turmeric helps reduce my inflammation and the ginger helps calm my stomach. To create this wonderful concoction all you have to do is mix all these things together!

• 1/4 tbs turmeric
• 1/8 tbs ginger
• almost 1/8 tbs of black pepper (omit for strict AIP)
• 1/4 tbs of salt

Drink up!